In a posthumously published book, Mark Twain made several observations about man as a species that accurately describes a curious species among all the creatures on Earth. There is a specific quote from “Letters From the Earth” that accurately describes Republicans and their never ending quest for imperialism and world domination regardless of the costs in lives and America’s resources. In a chapter titled “The Damned Human Race,” Twain wrote; “Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.”

In 2004 Bob Woodward wrote a book, “Plan of Attack,” that chronicled the events leading up to the Iraq war and highlighted how on the first day of George W. Bush’s presidency, his war council walked into the White House and asked where the plans were for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The account suggested that Bush’s team had designs to wage war on Iraq before his inauguration and the terror attacks of 9/11. Now as the Iraq conflict is winding down, Republicans are again clamoring for a war against another Muslim country to satisfy their bloodlust, the state of Israel, and fundamentalist Christians who yearn to bring on the end times and the bible’s war of Armageddon.

The latest attempt to provoke and promote a war with Iran is courtesy of Willard “Mitt” Romney, and even though he has not won the Republican nomination for president, he and his foreign policy team are stumping for war and the atrocities only Christians are capable of. Romney wrote in a commentary published in the Wall Street Journal that if he were elected president, he promised he would “prepare for war with Iran.” Of course he would. Romney’s foreign policy team is stocked with Bush cronies who pushed the war with Iraq, and apparently, are busy repeating their tactics to involve America in another conflict with another Islamic country.

Romney assailed President Obama’s Middle East foreign policies as naiveté exemplified and attacked the Obama administration’s diplomatic and sanctions-oriented approach to Tehran’s nuclear program as “a case study in botched diplomacy.” Willard also criticized President Obama for not corralling Moscow into a tougher stance on Iran and for failing to interfere with Iran’s Green Revolution in 2009. Willard said, “A proper American policy might or might not have altered the outcome; we will never know. But thanks to this shameful abdication of moral authority, any hope of toppling a vicious regime was lost, perhaps for generations.” So, apparently Romney and his Bush war-mongers did not learn anything from the disastrous consequences of toppling another regime of a sovereign nation, so they are planning to repeat the scenario again. It is interesting that Romney, like all conservatives, believes America has a moral authority to force regime change through cowboy diplomacy.

There is a reason to be concerned that Iran may be seeking nuclear weapons, but there was little concern before Bush invaded Iraq. Saddam Hussein may have been a vicious dictator, but he was the one that kept Iran in check in the region until America invaded Iraq. After the Iraq invasion, Iran was surrounded by American forces on two borders, and with America’s influence in Pakistan, Iranians must have felt threatened with impeding invasion at any time. It would be stunning if Iran were not attempting to develop a nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to American invasion. If China invaded, conquered, and occupied Mexico and Canada, Americans would live in fear of impending invasion and develop weapons to prevent the inevitable military invasion. Iran is living that imaginary scenario and according to Willard and his war-council, Iranians are wrong if they develop nuclear weapons to preserve their existence.

A major part of the problem is the Republican relationship with Israel and the twisted belief that America owes Israel unconditional support regardless of the consequences. Romney said in the sabre-rattling commentary that he would back up US diplomacy “with a very real and very credible military option, deploying carrier battle groups to the Gulf and boosting military aid to Israel.” Romney, and Republicans claim America is broke and cannot afford to care for our own citizens; but they want to continue subsidizing Israel’s military with more entitlements and another war? A Romney presidency would give $6.6 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations that will add $6.5 trillion to the deficit, and give more Americans’ tax dollars to Israel when the country is allegedly broke? Israel has insinuated that they may take preemptive action against Iran to prevent their nuclear program from going forward and, like the little bully with big friends, knows that America will run to its defense if it starts a war with Iran. What is more frustrating is that it is okay that Israel has nuclear capabilities, but they have a problem with Iran acquiring a nuclear arsenal. Besides, if nuclear weapons are such a problem, why not prepare for war with India, Pakistan, China, Russia, North Korea and the rest of the nations with nuclear arsenals? Does America send carrier battle groups to surround every country in the world with nuclear weapons, or just Iran?

Republicans have clamored for a war with Iran since before the 2008 presidential election, and they have berated President Obama for his adeptness at diplomacy that has kept Americans from numerous conflicts that cowboy diplomacy would have produced. Christians have been panting for a war with Iran to protect Israel because as Sarah Palin said, “it might start the war of Armageddon” that results in the mythological rapture of Christians to the fantasy-in-the-sky they call Heaven. One might think Romney is just pandering for the Jewish vote, but he, like all Republicans, is a true believer that America has a moral obligation to protect Israel as well as eradicate Islam off the face of the Earth.

The cost of a war with Iran would entail more than dollars and lives. If America does send carrier battle groups to the region, Iran will shut off oil from the region that will adversely affect energy prices in America and around the world. The military cost alone would be staggering and at a time when the military is stretched thin, it seems a long substantial war would break the country once and for all. Perhaps that is why Republicans, and especially Romney, is hell-bent on privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to steal American’s retirement to fund another war as well as the wealthy’s tax cuts.

America has no right to topple regimes or fund Israel’s military, and yet Romney considers it our moral obligation. He is a typical war-mongering Republican who feels comfortable putting American troops in harm’s way and American’s tax dollars to work enriching the military industrial complex that is draining precious resources that we can no longer afford to subsidize. Republicans often cite the unconstitutionality of Democratic policies and agendas, but they fail to acknowledge that the Constitution only provides for the country’s defense; not toppling regimes of sovereign nations.

Republicans have blood lust for Muslims and there is no other way to characterize their desire for war against Islamic nations. They are also willing to send American troops to their deaths to fight for Israel besides Americans’ tax dollars to fund their substantial military. All the while, they cannot pass a jobs bill, fund social programs for the poor, or help struggling families with their mortgages that greedy Wall Street bankers manipulated and caused a global recession. However, it is Republicans’ lack of morality that puts them in the same category as every other death-dealing malcontent throughout world history. Mark Twain had it right that man is the only animal that seeks to exterminate his kind, and Willard Romney has signaled that he is planning and takes the greatest pleasure in sending our citizens to “slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm.” Many of Romney’s critics have it right when they say that as a Mormon, he is not a Christian; he is a coward who intends on sending our young men, women, and precious resources to wage war for Israel, oil, dominion, and the end of the world.